Mago the puppy

Hola,

Intoducing Mago! One of the teachers heard that a farmer was about to 'dispose' of a few puppies. She brought the lot to the school to see if there were any folks that would be willing to adopt....and of course Sage said 'Yes!' without consulting Dad....Dad said no by the way...and not even knowing if the owner of the house that we just moved into would accept pets....Dad said no...but ask Mom....Mom said yes...thinking Dad said yes...from a couple of thousand miles away... all got confusaled. So we now have a new adorable intelligent puppy. We're in the process of getting all the shots and paperwork to enable us to bring the puppy into the states. I figure if we can bring Quinn back in, we should be able to bring any puppy....shots or no shots.

So here is a picture of Mago (magician).

Ciao for now. (CFN)

Forest

Pseudostigmatidae The Helicopter Damselfly

OK, here is the damselfly that Dad has been chasing around. This is a damselfly, called the 'helicopter', with an unusually slow flight and very long and slender abdomen. They look like something that should be hooked to a remote control. They have huge delicate black wings with yellow wingtips. We finally found some at BEN (Bosque Enternal Ninos) in Monteverde. They lay their eggs in the forest in tree holes or tank bromeliads. They are really cool to watch. When they stop beating their wings they just drift. They alight and disappear and then with a flash of yellow and black they take off again. This is one of the shorter movies. I can upload others if ya'll are interested.

Ciao for now,

Forest

Barefeet

Ok...so we go around in our bare feet alot. And maybe we don't wash them as often as we should. Hey we're jungle kids in Costa Rica.

Earth Day

We scraped the tops of some cement tables and are in the process of breaking tiles and creating mosaics for tabletops! The whole school is involved. Everyone helps. There was some music by students and a huge potluck meal to help with the celebration. Everyone toured the biodiesel facility and watched the three busses being filled with the home brew. We wash our hands with the byproduct of the process....soap!

Check out the guy using the machete (the Tico pocket knife) to scrape the tabletop.

Rainy Season

Could be an early beginning of the rainy season here.....and when it rains it ours. When we were in one of the school buildings with a metal roof, the teacher had to stop talking because no one could hear him over the rain! Rains almost everyday now...but just in the late afternoon and sometimes at night...very windy at night. I have two plasitic skylights above me in my room that rattle with the wind. One of these nights they may go flying off!
Two big events that I'll talk about soon are:\
1. Happy Earth Day!
2. we may be bringing a puppy home with us!
ciao for now,
Forest

Las Juntas

This little town is a typical large village in Costa Rica. There is a Monteverde connection in that many of the original farmers in Santa Elena came from the gold mines of Las Juntas. Costa Rica had a gold rush similar to our own. The rough and tumble town was a bit too much for many folks so they moved to the quiet mountains of Monteverde.

Notice how all the vehicles are 4x4. Folks mostly walk, horseback, tico ox cart, or bikes, dirt bikes....the family 'car' might be an ATV. Also notice how the people cage themselves in for safety against the occasional riot. Yikes!
Sorry these are out of chronological order. We had to go through Las Juntas to get to and from the Playa Samara.

New Foods

Santa Elena does have a SuperMercado with everything from fresh mango to zapatos! Quinn has found some Ajo that we are wondering how to cook. Rowan has found some white bread (blanco y blonde) called 'Bimbo'? Fresh Mango everyday and papaya and bananas and....avacado and....

Sage on a Swing and in the Surf

We found a hotel for a night with a pool....and then some 6 year old surfer dude showed us the monkey swing....which Sage had to try. Also is a video of Sage burying her board into the pipe while surfing in Samara. We're in the new house and exploring the neighborhood. More pics of the Cerro Plano neighborhood to follow.

Hay un cangrejo en mi zapato!

Rowan gave a scream and a 'Stop the Car!' just a few miles from Playa Samara. We were on our way 'home' to Monteverde when he found a crab in his shoe. He had tried to put it on before getting in the car but decided to get into the car shoeless and put them on while in transit. He was probably worried Dad would leave him behind (again) if he didnt hurry. Rowan left behind....is another story. The little shriek came after the the crab pinched and then dropped out in the side pocket of his door. We pulled over after finding a safe place to do so (difficult on a one lane road with two way traffic). Dad bravely extracted the crab from the narrow door pocket and released him into the nearby jungle. Will be make it back the few kliks to the beach?
Neat to hear Rowan descrbe the crab story, colors and all, to his friend this morning...completely in Spanish!

Playa Samara

Here are some photos of our time on the beach. Sage celebrated her 11 birthday with a locally made cake with Wizard of Oz decorations. Two ruby slippers adorned the white icing with feliz cumpleaños in a circle. We shared the caked with anyone around...which was a great way to meet people. Our neighbor turned out to be a plant pathologist from the University of San Jose so he and Dad had a grand time exchanging latin names of plants.
Sage and I went horse back riding in the early morning (pics later) on the beach.
We took a surfing lesson at Jesse's surf school. Turns out that everyone called the new owner Jesse....even though that was not his real name. The original owner was named Jesse...back in the '60's and the new owners inherited his name....kind of like the pirate in Princess Bride!
thanks again for reading and posting...any questions or requests?
Forest in the Cloud Forest

Back from the Playa

Well we're back from the Playa. We stayed at a neat place called the Fenix in Samara Beach. The owners are anxious to sell and get back to their real love....gold mining! We went through La Juntas (movie to follow) which is and was a gold mining town. Costa Rica had its gold rush just like California! As a matter of fact many of the original Tico farmers in Monteverde area were disgruntled gold miners looking for a more peaceful existence. And we may go gold mining! You have to be over 18 for some reason,.,,,no minor miners. There;s got to be a whole pun there somewhere. Have to find some place where they don't mind minor miners mining gold.
We got to and from Monteverde 'smoothly' ...a real joke if you know the roads. Some of them are only passable with a four wheel drive....and then very slowly in first gear. I navigated using a 'treasure map' created by one of the parents who had been to Samara Beach before. There were a couple of time where we said 'This just can't be the main road'. But piles of rocks, trees washouts and rubble lead the way to the Nicoya Penisula and the Pan American Highway. Dad said we never got lost we just lost confidence a few times.
I'm typing this from our new house that has internet access (phone line). I'll wait until I get to the higher speed at school to upload any pictures or movies but I just wanted to add another post and thank all you folks that have commented. Thanks for helping me keep in touch with the outside world!
The first house we went to we were greeted by a scorpion at the door. This house we were greated with candles....the electricity goes out alot. We're now in Cerro Plano which is in between Monteverde and Santa Elena. A really neat house built like a Swiss Chalet with vaulted ceilings. Not a typical Tico house at all...except lots of tile and stone work. They do such beautiful stone/masonry work here. Not as good a view as the last house but well off the main road and with a bit of a yard that we can play ball. There is a wall in the back holding back the hillside where we played wall ball earlier. All the houses are built on terraces cut into the mountain side.
Well I better post this and get to bed....school day tomorrow!
thanks for reading and posting,
Forest in the Cloud Forest.

A visitor for Forest

Hello from CEC,

I had a visitor this AM. Very strong - fuerte.

Actually flew in! and this is not the largest one we've seen!

That's my HFL notebook in the background. To the Beach this weekend! Playa Samara on the Nicoya Penisula. I'll try to publish a map of the area soon.

Forest

Different Foods

Santa Elena does have a SuperMercado with everything from fresh mango to zapatos!
Quinn has found some Ajo that we are wondering how to cook. Rowan has found some white bread (blanco y blonde) called 'Bimbo'? Fresh Mango everyday and papaya and bananas and....avacado and....

Forest....Jungle girl

Whose worried about scorpions, spiders or snakes? Forest is becoming one with the forest.

The CEC Cloud Forest School

Here is the entrance to the school and the conservation area. Also the very steep hill (Pero Negro) to the school. Great workout every AM.

Posting from the CEC

Hola,

This is the view from our little yellow house just up from the Ranario. We are overlooking Santa Elena. The road was just paved and they are clearing the land across the street for more building.

We are going to Playa Samara this weekend. After that we will shift to a new house in Cerro Plano...which is a village between Monteverde and Santa Elena.

Zip line movie

Hey I just posted my first image....now I'm going to try a movie...let's see if my battery holds up.

Forest

Zip Line photo attempt

Hola!

We went on another zip line through the Monteverde Cloud Forest. This is the original zip line that was used to study the upper canopy epiphytes (plants that grow on other plants).

MONTEVERDE general link

Here is general link for the Monteverde area.

http://www.monteverdeinfo.com/

BEN

This is where Dad is volunteering.
HE IS DOING SOME BELLBIRD RESEARCH. oops cap lock sorry....


http://www.monteverdeinfo.com/

Dinner last night!

Treehouse cafe in St. Elena This place has a web cam so you can see us sometime. They built the cafe around a tree!
http://www.canopydining.com/
try it!
The only monkeys we´ve seen are in the mirror....